


For A Child's Eyes

by Iggytheperson



Category: Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: Gen, Sammy Is A Ghost, Suffer With Me :), also also the kids names are yoinked with permission from estelledusk's headcanons, also it's epilogue so it's technically kinda kenyako but they don't talk to each other so, hi it's iggy back at it again to hurt you for no reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:01:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21601378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iggytheperson/pseuds/Iggytheperson
Summary: Ken wants to know how his kids manage to have a unanimous imaginary friend between them.The kids want to know why their dad doesn't talk to Uncle Osamu even when they're right next to each other.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	For A Child's Eyes

It started with Eri learning to walk. She walked to Mama, then to Papa, but before Ken could pick her up and tell her how proud he was, she’d turned around again, as if someone else was calling to her. She pushed off of him and waddled in that direction, arms outstretched just as they were for her parents, but there was no one in the parth she was stumbling who would catch her. She didn’t seem to realize this, though, falling forward into nothing and crying in confusion afterwards. 

Ken ran and scooped her up, but he could hardly wipe her tears away since her eyes were still trained below her, on whatever imaginary friend she’d been reaching towards.

She would also start a trend that would carry on through the years with all her siblings who would come after. The baby monitor would alert them to the fact that she was crying, and Miyako would groan and go to feed her, only to find her giggling in her crib. 

It wasn’t some form of prank, no, she was definitely in need of food, which in itself was even stranger. What happened in the thirty second walk to her room? Did she simply hear her mother coming and get excited? No parenting guide had an answer, so eventually they just gave up and accepted it as a trait, and later came to consider it a genetic one, when her younger brother and sister did the same. A couple of times, Ken watched the monitor as his wife ran over, trying to see what was inspiring the delight. They would start laughing in a burst, as if something had surprised them. He never figured out what.

Cameras see things linearly, after all, much like the eyes of adults. 

They can’t quite pick up on ghosts.

And nor can the parents, so when they see their little ones talking to the same blank point on the wall, Ken assumes this means they’re all just very close, bonding, sharing an imaginary friend, or playing some game he doesn’t understand.

There’s nothing to show him how they’re hearing embarrassing stories about his own childhood from their uncle. He assumes they heard it from grandma when they recount the story of him accidentally sipping bubble mix the first time it was handed to him.

Eri grows out of the imaginary friend thing around age 8, and Ken takes this to mean it will pass in time for the other two as well.

Osamu is aware of this time limit too. Kaede will crawl up to his legs and ask “Why'a cryin’?” in a voice so much like his father’s at that age, on the occasions that his eldest niece walks right through him. She doesn’t believe in him anymore, chalked his existence up to having seen his picture on the shelf and conjured an image in response. 

He has no beating heart to fuel a nervous system, and yet his insides ache when he thinks of the other two forgetting him in time just as she has.

He wonders if maybe, had he died just a little faster, Ken would’ve had enough innocence left to have seen him too, and believed in him, and he wouldn’t have had to spend decades watching his brother’s life proceed without him.

It’s a selfish thought, he knows. Ken is happier now, having moved on with his life, having coped with the scar Osamu’s exit left behind. There’s no brother-shaped hole haunting him anymore, and that’s a good thing. He should feel it as a good thing.

And yet knowing he was little more than a misfortune in Ken’s life, something painful best forgotten, hurts more than any drunk driver’s car ever could.

So he savours every moment of attention he can get the little ones to pay him. He knows it’s a bad thing for his nephew to go tumbling to the floor having tried to hug him, he knows, but Osamu is no more than an eleven year old child. An eleven year old floating in a stasis of resentment and regret for a life hardly lived. Unable to accept that he’s no longer needed.

He can’t help himself from wanting the little blip of attention he’ll get, before he’s back to watching the world move on without him.


End file.
